WebUrbanist Turns One: Past Favorites & Future Developments

Has it really been that long? It is hard to believe how much the site has evolved in just one year. Many regular readers have likely noticed a number of significant recent changes to the site including a new design, additional authors and an even greater variety of content styles and topics that have come with this infusion of creative and international contributors. What you might not know is that there are even bigger things in the works, from WebUrbanist reader forums to amazing urban image and video galleries.

The new site design was no small task. Undertaken by the experts at Spyre Studios it is even more awesome than we had hoped for. The new layout provides multiple new ways to navigate content, a beautiful new color scheme, site structure and header image as well as a dynamic new recent articles widget and new slots for thumbnail links to upcoming image galleries. So clearly it is well loved by the WebUrbanist crew … but what do you think? Any feedback, critical or positive, would be much appreciated!

For readers new to the site we have some interesting additional options for browsing our favorite as well as reader favorite articles from the archives. A new search function as well as a widget (located below our subscription area at the top of the page) provide ways to navigate through the best of WebUrbanist to classic articles about 3D street art, amazing tree houses, insane hotel rooms, light graffiti and abandoned wonders.

The new writers have been bringing in a different kind of content that readers are familiar with on this site. From famous and beautiful war and peacememorials and monuments to the history and origins of guerrilla marketing we hope these various additions add a healthy variety to WebUrbanist’s already eclectic mix of articles and the typical style of WebUrbanist. Again, your feedback will help us shape future content so feel free to share your thoughts on these new topics and developments.

Many other websites and bloggers have been a big help this year. There are too many to mention here by far but a special shout goes out to DarkRoastedBlend, Neatorama and MentalFloss in particular. Also, we’d like to thank some of our particularly nifty sponsors: the Spraygraphic community which is dedicated to everything artistic and creative and WonderHowTo which has wonderful DIY video collections.

As to the future: forums, video and image galleries are currently in the making. These will provide more ways for readers to interact both with WebUrbanist content and with other readers. Interesting contributions within the forums will also provide us with inspiration and ideas for future content so everyone – forum contributors as well as regular readers – will be able to benefit from this addition to the site. Image and video galleries will make it easier to navigate dazzling visuals within topics and not just by article.

As always we welcome feedback as well as content ideas and new advertisers – all of which are vital to keeping this scrappy urban website up and running. We would also strongly encourage you to sign up for our feed if you haven’t already so you won’t miss a thing. Have a book or blog you would like publicized that relates to the topics found on WebUrbanist? We also offer readers the chance to become guest authors if they feel they have something to contribute at that level. Feel free to contact us anytime and thanks for making this last year an amazing one and for your continued readership and support of WebUrbanist!

Right now the layout is quite cluttered with the advertisement directly below the widget. also there is no focus on the front page. for example when your browsing through the articles in the widget it wastes time because you have to go through the list and while the a list of past articles appears to the right hand side your eyes are not immediately drawn to it. this makes the site hard to navigate if your a new reader. also the colour scheme adds to this confusion aswell. right now the site seems irratating to the eye. everything esle is fine though! good articles! nice links!

UrbanistJune 16th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

Thanks, Kris, for the honest feedback – it is definitely appreciated. We’ll see what we can do about moving that advertisement down and perhaps making the text in the widget brighter/bolder so it is clear to new readers that is the first stop for navigational purposes. Thanks again!

DavidJune 16th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

I agree with Kris. The problem with this new layout is that the FEATURE has no more prominence than anything else.

Before I could look at the page and read the new stuff. Now I have to search and hover to find the new posts.

The majority of this first page should be the feature. Secondary things shouldn’t be the focus: the focus is the focus :-)

Mostly though, I love the site and will keep reading it regardless. It’s just a bit busy/cluttered for comfort now…

AviJune 16th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

Thank you for your work… always fascinating compilations!

daniJune 16th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Just found Weburbanist a few weeks ago. But love it! Images are amazing! Thanks! Good work!

UrbanistJune 17th, 2008 at 12:14 am

Thanks a lot for all of the feedback so far. We’re already reworking the design to take these comments into account. If anyone else would like to share some thoughts please feel free!

Jimmy-JamesJune 17th, 2008 at 6:04 am

Been a follower for a while now and always love the articles on this website. Keep up the good work.

aaronJune 17th, 2008 at 9:10 am

love the website… but the new layout I agree is cluttered, and has been running a bit slowly on my computer. I like the color scheme though.

A1 Medical SuppliesJune 18th, 2008 at 11:50 am

It is obvious that a lot of time and effort has been put into this site and it has some really great content on it. :)

ViralRealityJune 20th, 2008 at 12:55 am

Congratuations on your first year. What a great success it has been. I always enjoy reading your site and consider WebUrbanist to be one of my All -Time Favorites!

Good luck inthe future.

BTW, the first thing I did when I opened my blog was add WebUrbanist to the Blogroll. Something to make me feel at home. .. :)

Keep it real !

UrbanistJune 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm

Thanks all for the great feedback. We are starting to change the front page around to reflect some of the comments we have gotten. For starters, you can now browse the most recent articles vertically as you could in the old layout. Keep your eye out for other changes and additions as we move forward and keep those comments coming!